Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

So the other day I went out and bought a nice bag of peated malt as I always wanted to have a crack at a nice single malt heavy on the peat. Up until this point I have run only AG corn, malted wheat and barley mixes.
Anyway disaster has struck in what seems to me a rather unusual way. A short time into the stripping run I start to get contamination in my collection jar, murky particles like dusty lint from a dryer. I swapped collection jars and eventually it cleared.
The next day after the run I opened my still and the whole internal area above the waterline is caked with this stuff! Looks even more like lint now.
Additional information:
Still size 5lt copper alembic
Charge size 3lt
Malt brand Bairds medium peated
Fermentation size 10lt
I treated this run from mash to still the same as all my many other corn based ones which all went perfect, my wash was clear and had been sitting in the fridge for a week or so.
I'm at a loss to explain where all this "lint" came from. I'm doing another run now and it seems to be happening again, and I really watched my wash as I was adding to to the still and it was very clear.
Any ideas? :think:

It could be that some peat has come through in the wash.

Here is a recipe for peatreek which is a simple way of making a peat essence that you can add to your wash prior to distilling or if you use hearts you can add straight to your final product.

Hope this helps.

crow wrote:If your chasing that peated smoke flavour typical of scotches you could try adding a few drips of peatreek to it and use light or untoasted oak. I haven't tried it but here's how some ppl make it
Peetreak
Add 2 cups Peat Moss to a tin container with lid.
Gently heat on BBQ, turning or shaking frequently, for 1 hour. It will smoke a little bit.
Let cool completely before adding 2 cups high ABV alcohol.
Filter through mesh strainer, then cheesecloth, then a few time through coffee filters.

Yeah that was posted by scarecrow actually but anyway the point is your malt made no contribution to your contamination. Your still puked dieting the run, there could have been a number of reasons. To much heat , the ferment wasn't complete or your protein rest was not completed or more likely a combination of several of these factors :handgestures-thumbupleft:

crow wrote:Yeah that was posted by scarecrow actually but anyway the point is your malt made no contribution to your contamination. Your still puked dieting the run, there could have been a number of reasons. To much heat , the ferment wasn't complete or your protein rest was not completed or more likely a combination of several of these factors :handgestures-thumbupleft:

That was my thought as well but I'm unsure how I could have done much better. I heated the mash water to conversion temp and wrapped the pot in a blanket overnight, should of spent plenty of time at the right temps and the SG dropped from 1.055 to 0.990 during fermentation. I heated it in the still as normal, it's all a bit shit :angry-banghead:
Should I try a boil before fermentation maybe? :think:
I have one last 3lt load I run super slow and we will see :pray:

I have never ran a corn wash but I know for a fact any barley malt base wash will foam and puke almost regardless of what you do, try adding some anti foaming conditioner or some veggie oil if you can't find any :handgestures-thumbupleft:

sam_and_liv wrote:I have never ran a corn wash but I know for a fact any barley malt base wash will foam and puke almost regardless of what you do, try adding some anti foaming conditioner or some veggie oil if you can't find any :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I'll look into the anti foaming conditioner, cheers :handgestures-thumbupleft:
But I think crow is on the right track with the protein rest, I also remember something about a hot break that might help. I need to brush up on my brewing techniques. :-B